Less than a few hundred meters away from where they were attacked, Gawain found the cabin that had turned into ruins.
It was collapsed among the trees. From the burn marks, it could be inferred that it was a fire that spread from the inside out, but the fire did not spread any farther, perhaps because of the rain. Sir Byron inspected the burned remains around the cabin and determined that the fire should have occurred more than half a month ago.
Heidi detected a magical power that had already become very faint at the scene.
"What we saw in the shadow realm should be a reflection," Gawain looked at the ruins of the cabin in the forest clearing and gave his opinion. "This wild Mage has been living, secluded in this place for many years. This place is outside of the family territory. Even hunters won't come here, so no one would even realize that a hermit lived here. "
"The problem is… how did the accident happen?" Heidi frowned. "There is only a weak magic focal point here, and the wild Mage living here is very weak, even if one of his magic experiments went out of control and burned the house down, it couldn't have possibly created a reflection in the shadow realm lasting for such a long period of time and then even create such a powerful Mist Wraith… The magical power required for all this isn't something that a single wild Mage could supply."
"Perhaps this notebook can shed some light on that," Gawain said, placing the worn notebook into Heidi's hand.
That was the notebook that he had gotten from Betty in the shadow realm. It was that wild Mage's diary and research notes.
Following Gawain's instructions, Heidi flipped to the second half of the notebook and took a closer look.
"… Anzu, year 729, XX day of Fire Month. It has been six months since moving to this place. I've found a magic focal point at the edge of the Cecil Clan's territory. Although its power couldn't be compared with the public magic focal point of the City of Thousand Towers, it was enough to support my laboratory. There was only one type of elemental power here, and its stable. Annie should be able to get better here."
"Anzu, year 729, XX day of Harvest Month. Annie's condition seems to have improved, and she hasn't relapsed for a long time. I still don't know if it is the effect of the environment here or if it is the effect of my rituals and medicine. The magic focal point here is too weak. Even with the Amplification Circle, the effect of my rituals would be greatly diminished. Perhaps I should reevaluate those formulas that have been derived previously… Though those in the Association of Mystics always laughed at my calculations, I've quit anyways, and they're not going to bother me here…"
"Anzu, year 730, day XX of Fog Month. Those formulas and derivations were completely in line with my expectations! No, I should say that everything went just as I had calculated. With the new amplification formula, the power of the magic focal point was enhanced greatly! With more magical power, I can finally start the next stage of treatment for Annie. Although she has hardly relapsed in these few months, the treatment must continue because she can't take this torment anymore…"
"Anzu, year 731, day XX of Cold Month. After treatment, Annie could even get up from bed and walk around. She even made a meal! She made fried sausage and vegetable soup. It seems like it's been a hundred years since I've eaten something as good as this, though the sausages were charred, and she had forgotten to add salt to the vegetable soup… This proves that my treatment plan was effective, and as long as this magic focal point can continue to steadily supply magic power, it's only a matter of time before Annie recovers fully…"
After that, the diary was mostly about the daily life of the author and his daughter. Heidi quickly skipped through this section until she came across an untidy entry on the last few pages.
"Anzu year 734, day XX of Frost Month. Annie is sick. Damn!!"
"I don't know what went wrong. All the treatments were going according to plan. There was no error in each step of the ritual. We've used the medicine for several years already. It has never been a problem! But Annie still fell ill, very ill… It's worse than all the previous times. I have to find the cause as soon as possible. I want to record all the details, all the… I want to find the cause. Annie will definitely be okay…"
"Anzu, year 734, day XX of Frost Month. Annie hasn't gotten any better. The new doses of medicine have no effect. She's still becoming weaker, and… she's starting to drift away from this world. This morning, I saw her hands become transparent like mist, and there were many blisters on her face. The world was rejecting her, pushing her into the shadow realm. What should I do…"
"Anzu year 734, day XX of Fog Month. The damned sun. It's dark red patterns looks like they're laughing at my powerlessness! I finally found the cause of the problem… but I've no way to resolve it… The elemental energy is being enriched in an abnormal fashion. There is a surge in the magical power. This weak magic focal point simply can't accommodate so much magical power. Even if I remove those Amplification Circles, it'll be of no use. The wisest move now will be to keep Annie away from here where the elemental energy is being enriched. But she has already stayed here for too long. Her body has resonated with the elemental environment. This type of resonance is prolonging her life… and yet it'll also kill her!"
"Anzu year 734, day XX of Fog Month. There's something wrong with the magical power in the whole region. It's surging intensely. The Cecil territory's borders seem to have fallen into the legendary Sea of Magic. I can no longer reverse the changes to Annie's body. Half of her body is already gone from the material realm. In the morning, she even told me that she saw the whole house turn black and white. Perhaps… I can only find another approach…"
"Anzu, year 735, Fire Month. After so long, all the preparations are finally done. Annie's health is also at its limit."
"This is my only chance, and I have no other choice."
"Since I can't keep Annie alive in the physical world, I might as well take another path."
"The ritual of Shadow Transformation is documented in literature. It's just that the amount of magical power required is so unimaginably great. But in this case, it might not be impossible. I used a new amplification formula, a new way to draw the circle, and it has caused a surge in magical power. The magical power in this area is in an abnormally active state. I have suppressed the energy accumulated in the magic focal point for several months, and today, it's finally just barely enough. Now, I'll just have to wait until the sun rises up to the center of the sky when the magical power will be the strongest, and I can then start the transformation."
"Annie, hang in there. Father will save you, and Father will go with you to the shadow realm. We'll live there for a long time, and you'll not suffer anymore."
The diary ended there.
Heidi was about to close the notebook when Gawain suddenly pointed to the corner of the last page. "Actually, there are some words here."
Heidi quickly took a close look. There was a black ink smudge in the corner. She had thought it was the stain caused from tipping over the ink bottle, but upon closer inspection, she realized that it was an untidy set of words written with a finger dipped in ink.
"The magical power is out of control… the sun is red…"
Heidi repeated these words in puzzlement, "The sun is red… How can the sun be red?"
"Could it be the time when the red spots burst?" Rebecca suddenly remembered something and said, "It was more than half a month ago when many more red spots appeared on the sun than usual. If the wild Mage wasn't very sober back then, perhaps he might have thought that the sun was red… "
Heidi batted her eyes as though she agreed with Rebecca's explanation. Then she shook the notebook in her hand, "With this notebook, we can find the answers to many things. It seems that this unknown wild Mage was trying to cure his daughter's illness, so he set up a magic circle of quite a significant scale here. Then he later came up with the crazy idea of transforming himself and his daughter into a shadowy form to preserve her life. But his transformation ritual went haywire due to the magical surge, causing the fire half a month ago, and also resulted in the formation of the Mist Wraith and what Ancestor saw in the shadow realm… "
"That's not the point," Gawain interrupted Heidi suddenly, "We can find the direct explanation to the cabin in the shadow realm and the Mist Wraith from the notes. What I wanted you to see was the two details mentioned in the notes. The first is about the dark red patterns on the surface of the sun, and the second is about the large-scale burst of the red spots on the sun's surface."
Heidi noticed Gawain's serious countenance, and she became a little nervous, "Ancestor, these two incidents…"
Gawain waved his hand. "As Mages, you two should also have sensed the surge in magical power that the wild Mage mentioned in his notes, right?"
Heidi and Rebecca glanced at each other and nodded in unison. "Recently, Cecil territory did have a few surges in magical power, but these surges are quite normal. All the magical power in the world comes from the sun, and since the sun is always evolving and changing, the magic here would also naturally fluctuate. Although the surge of magic within the territory has been quite frequent recently, it hasn't reached a level of concern."
Gawain looked at them both and said slowly, "Gondor, year 1736. A large quantity of dark red patterns were observed on the surface of the sun. Year 1738, the largest bursting of red spots in history was observed. Nearly half of the sun's surface was covered by the red spots. In the same year, 26 provinces in the empire reported a surge in magical power over a large area. The surge wasn't too great, but the surge was spread over almost two thirds of the empire. In year 1739, the sun was blood red. A dark red sky shrouded the entire country. But there were no disasters at that time. Instead, a large number of magically gifted babies were born. According to the records, almost one-third of the newborns born on that day had affinity to elemental power. And there was even a shortage of resonance stones in newborn testing organizations across the land, so court scholars announced that day to be called the 'Dawn of Magic'. But also in the same year, a large explosion occurred at the 'Well of Deep Blue', the largest magical power supply facility near Gondor. The cause of the explosion was the sudden surge of strong, chaotic magical power in the magic focal point located at the Well of Deep Blue. The Extraction Circle was unable to handle this chaotic energy, eventually leading to the reactor core meltdown…"
Gawain paused, but Heidi, with a pale expression, continued saying, "… Gondor, year 1740. The Dark Wave broke out, and the strongest human empire in history was destroyed within months…"